Pindi cops shoot in the foot

RAWALPINDI - While criminals continue to have field days, the sturdy cops seem in a dire need to aim right as in a Thursday evening incident they appeared focused more on whichhunt and media blackout. In a rather dramatic account, cops from Sadiqabad Police Station had a shootout here in Shamasabad area, but circumstances indicated the cops themselves weren’t clear who the encounter was against. However, there were two casualties – a cop and a university student shot injured. The injured student, identified as Nauman Farooq, was shifted to Benazir Bhutto Hospital. He is a student of BS (Hons) Agriculture at Pir Mehar Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University and complained of being victim of a stray bullet. Police, on the other hand, accused Nauman of opening fire at them and arrested two of his class fellows who had shifted him to BBH. While Nauman’s parents, teachers and other students denied police’s allegations, cops took a ‘swift action’ and arrested two more students on account of providing information to the media. The injured cop identified as Suhail Zafar was later discharged from hospital after treatment of his minor injuries.A source disclosed to The Nation that the two officials of Muhafiz Force, Yasir Farid and Suhail Zafar, intercepted two suspicious motorcyclists, who had opened fire on them (cops), but they (suspects) fled. However, the cops alleged the students, who were passing nearby, of firing at them. According to details, a group of students including Nauman Farooq, Muaviya Hafeez, Zaheer, Naveed Ahsan, Naheem Awan and Bilal, after attending class, were on their way to a refreshment centre at 6pm when a stray bullet hit the left ankle of Nauman. His two fellows, Muaviya Hafeez and Naveed Ahsan, rushed him to BBH for treatment. Within no time a heavy contingent of police including SHO Malik Allah Yar, Suhail and Yasir also reached the hospital and accused Nauman of firing on police. Police officials held Muaviya and Zaheer and shifted them to unknown location. Nauman, in his statement given to the SHO in the hospital bed, told that a stray bullet hit his ankle and he had not seen any cop or robber firing bullets. The SHO, when asked, said that two suspects fled seeing police party and opened fire on them which injured policeman Suhail Zafar slightly. He said that Suhail recognised the accused in hospital. On the other hand, hospital sources confirmed that the injured student was brought to hospital by his friends who were later arrested by police. When this scribe visited BBH, two students Ranas Bilal and Naeem Sultan accused police of injuring their friend. However, all of a sudden five police officials in plain clothes arrested them too in a bid to stop them from sharing any further information with the media. Asked why they picked the two students, one of the slueths replied, “The SHO has called them (the two students) to police station for recording statements.”On the other hand, the SHO recorded only statement of Nauman and left the hospital. TWO FOREIGNERS ARRESTEDAnti-Narcotics Force during successful operations in various parts of the country recovered huge quantity of narcotics and apprehended 10 smugglers including two foreigners, informed ANF spokesman on Thursday. According to him, the ANF put its staff on high alert at Benazir Bhutto International Airport Islamabad on information that two foreigners would try to smuggle heroin and cocaine abroad. During checking, the staff recovered 1.2-kg cocaine from a Philippine lady passenger MA Leonora Galvez while 2.9-kg of fine quality heroine from the possession of a Turkish passenger namely Dolgun Niazi. Both were going Doha via Qatar Airline from Islamabad. A total of 1.8-kg of charas was seized from two people Noor Khan and Javed Iqbal at Jhand. He added that ANF also foiled bids of heroin smuggling at Allam Iqbal International Airport Lahore by arresting Muhammad Ashraf, who confessed of having ingested capsules filled with heroin. He was travelling to Jeddah by Saudi Airline Flight Number EY-242. Likewise, scanning of parcels recovered 1.2-kg of heroin tactfully concealed in potato cutter, which was booked in a parcel to Canada. The consignment was booked through Express Reliance Courier Service.In Peshawar, ANF taking action against the drug traffickers recovered 7-kg opium and 10-kg charas and nabbed smugglers.The detainees identified as Imran Dilawar, Aziz Ullah, Rehmat Ullah, Saeed-ur-Rehman, Muhammad Younas and Muhammad Riaz. The ANF registered cases against the accused and started investigation, the spokesman said.

This news was published in The Nation newspaper. Read complete newspaper of 17-Jan-2014 here.